Megaphone for wind instruments



Jan. 30, 1951 1.. L. GILCREASE MEGAPHONE FOR WIND INSTRUMENTS Filed Jan.14, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. LEO/YARD L. 61L ORE/13E.

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Jan. 30,1951 L. 1.. GILCREASE MEGAPHONE FOR WIND INSTRUMENTS 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 14, 1949 INVENTOR. Lia/MR0 L. 61L 025/155.

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Patented Jan. 30, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MEGAPHGNE FOR WINDINSTRUMENTS Leonard L. Gilcrease, Haniord, .Calif.

Application January 14, 1949, Serial No. 70,925

4 Claims. 1

The present invention relates to improvements in a magaphone for a windinstrument, and it particularly relates to an apparatus which willincrease the sound of wind instruments of narrow shape. Such instrumentshave little tone volume due to the lack of a large instrumental body.Typical of such instruments are the flute and clarinet.

Many instruments are provided with a body which will increase the soundvolume. Such instruments are, among others, the trumpet, the trombone,and the saxophone.

The present invention deals with tubularshaped, narrow instruments.Their sound will be drowned out in an orchestra when competing with thetype of instrument that contains volume building body unless reinforcedby several artists playing the same passage. This invention puts thenarrow, tubular-shaped instruments on a more equal basis, and improvestheir sound quality and resonance at the same time. It is well known topersons skilled in the art, that in some sound producing horns the pitchof the notes is determined by the vibration of the lips. In theseinstruments the horn merely prevents the sound Waves from dispersing,and rather sends them uniformly in the direction of its outlet opening.This creates in the distance the effect of an increase in sound volume.This is utilized in any magaphone, be it a radio speaker or anautomobile horn.

This principle is used in my invention. I am using a wind instrumentwhich produces the pitch of the notes by means of tone-holes and not byvibration of the lips. At the same time I provide a magaphonesurrounding the instrument which will direct the tone volume-in acertain direction before the tones escape into the open. 7

It is an object of my invention to overcome the tonal defectsoriginating in the ordinary wind instrument of the clarinet type.

It is another object to produce a medium which will increase the soundof instruments which have practically no volume building body of theirown, by confining the sound waves produced by the instrument and sendingthem in one direction.

It is a further important object of my invention to combine animprovement which will produce the desired pitch by the advantageous useof tone holes; with an instrument body adapted to create the impressionof a larger sound volume by directing all of the emanating sound wavesin a certain direction.

It is another object of this invention to provide means for gainingaccess to the tone holes of a wind instrument surrounded by a casing,without appreciable loss of tone volume through the open ings of thecasing permitting access to the instrument for playing it.

Finally, it is an important object to provide access to the encasedinstrument in such a manner that the musician playing it is assured thefull freedom in the movement of his fingers and hands over theinstrument.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification,and the novel features of the device will be particularly pointed out inthe appended claims.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming a partof this application, in which:

Figure 1 shows a side view of the magaphone with an instrument mountedtherein;

Figure 2 shows a front view of the magaphone;

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in Figure 1and shows the instrument holding means;

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken along the line LVIV in Figure l andshows the means for receiving the right hand of the player;

Figure 5 is another sectional view along line VV of Figure 1 and showsthe means for receiving the left hand of the player;

Figure 6 is a sectional View taken along the line VIVI in Figure 5, andshows a further detail of the hand-receiving opening in the magaphone;and

Figure '7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the megaphone portion thathouses the instrument and is taken along the line VII-VII in Figure 2.

While I have shown only the preferred form of my invention, it should beunderstood that various changes or modifications may be made within thescope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention.

The wind instrument indicated generally at A, rests in a horn-shapedcasing B. To hold the instrument Afirmly in place, spring clips I and laclamp the body of the instrument to saddles 2 and 2a,. respectively. Theclips 6 and la are preferably located, one at each end of theinstrument, and are secured to the saddles 2 and 2a. The saddles are mountedwithin the casing B. Since the instrument A is located approximately inthe center of the casing B, the saddles will preferably form a halfdisc, as shown in Figure 3. In the drawings, a clarinet is shown locatedin the casing B, but any other wind instrument of Somewhat similar shapemay be used instead.

The instrument A is operated by means of opening or closing difierentcombinations of tone holes 3, which can be closed by the fingers of theplayer, or else levers 4 may be employed for the same purpose. Air isblown into the instrument through the mouthpiece 5, which, as shown inFigure 1, protrudes from the entrance end of the casing B. Two clips 6around the mouthpiece serve to hold the reed to the mouthpiece.

It may become necessary to remove the instrument A from the casing B.For this purpose a cover C is made a part of the casing. Hinges I permitthe opening and closing of the cover C. The latter and the hinges l areshown in Figure 2. A fastener 8 will hold the cover 5, while closed,safely to the casing. Reference is made to Figure 4. The casing B has acurved and conical body widening toward a bell end D.

While the instrument is being played, the casing B is supported by astrap E which is placed over the shoulder of the musician. Two eyelets 9are used to secure the strap E to the megaphone.

In order to afford access to the sets of tone holes 3 and levers 4 whichare operated by the musicians hands, large apertures F and G areprovided in the casing opposite the respective sets of tone holes 3 andlevers 4.

Usually, in a clarinet, the left hand operates the set of tone holes andlevers disposed closer to the mouthpiece. Thus, the aperture F, nearerto the mouthpiece 5, is located on the left hand side of the casing B;the aperture G is located on the right hand side and opposite the lowersets of tone holes 3 and levers 4. This arrange ment is shown in Figures1 and 2.

The apertures F and G are closed by shields H and J, respectively. It issufiicient to describe the function of the shield H covering theaperture F, and it should be remembered that a similar arrangementapplies to the aperture G.

The shield H is arcuate in shape and has two arcuate members H and 12.The numeral it represents the inner member and the numeral l2 the outermember. As shown in Figure 5, a hand-receiving sleeve 13 is secured tothe members H and I2. The sleeve carries a flange it, which issecured'to the members H and 52 by rivets or other suitable fasteningmeans. As indicated before, a similar arrangement applies to the loweraperture G, shown in Figure 4. There the respective parts carry the samenumerals and letters, but have in addition the suifix a.

Thus the shields H and J are free to move peripherally andlongitudinally along the casing B, and the sleeves l3 and [3a are freeto be moved any place within the confines of the apertures F and G asindicated by the arrows X in Figures 4, 5 and 6. The purpose of theshield and sleeve arrangement is to furnish an entry just large enoughto receive the musicians hand. If the sleeves were not movable, themusician would not be able to move hi hands and fingers to diiferentkeys of the instrument. But the arrangement described formshand-receiving passages freely movable which will cause the shields toslide and rotate freely according to the movements of the musicianshands. Full mobility of his fingers is preserved by the tapered appear-4 ance of the sleeves l3 and 13a, and for all practical purposes nosound waves will escape from the casing B through the apertures F and Gafter the musicians hands have entered the sleeves.

I claim:

1. A megaphone for an instrument, comprising a horn-shaped casingadapted to surround the instrument; the instrument having its mouthpieceprotruding from one end of the casing and having tone holes; and thecasing having handreceiving apertures affording access for the musiciansfingers to the tone holes, and a hinged cover forming a part of thecasing, said cover when opened permitting the insertion of or theremoval of the instrument from the casing.

2. A megaphone for a wind instrument having sets of tone holes withlevers for closing certain of the holes, comprising a casing adapted tosurround the wind instrument; the casing having large apertures; anarcuate shield covering each aperture; each shield being slidablysupported by the casing and having hand-receiving openings moveablewithin the confines of each aperture affording access of the musicianshands to operate manually the tone holes and levers, without anyappreciable escape of sound waves through the hand-receiving opening.

In a megaphone for an instrument, a casing adapted to surround theinstrument; the casing having hand-receiving apertures permitting theplaying of the instrument; an arcuate shield covering each aperture;each shield being movably supported by the casing and having twocircumferentially movable members, one on the inside and the other onthe outside of the casing; both members being connected together; eachshield having a hand-receiving opening movable within the confines ofeach aperture and affording access for the hands of the player of theinstrument.

4. In a megaphone for a wind instrument having sets of tone holes, acasing adapted to surround the wind instrument; the instrument havingits mouthpiece protruding from one end of the casing; the casing havingan aperture disposed opposite each set of tone holes; an arcuate shieldcovering each aperture; each shield being supported by the casing andbeing slidable circumferentially and longitudinally of the casing, andeach shield having a hand-receiving sleeve movable within the confinesof the casing and afiording access of the musicians hands to each set oftone holes.

LEONARD L. GILCREASE.

REFERENCES CITED Thefollowing references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 644,669 Froelich Mar. 6, 1900681,753 Strieifier Sept. 3, 1901 723,701 Messner Mar. 24, 19%

1,698,958 Miessner Jan. 15, 1929 1,951,928 Elkington Mar. 20, 19342,160,229 Rupert May 30, 1939

